No fewer than 20 people have been arrested in Yaounde by the police for defying a ministerial ban on the selling of chicken in Mfoundi Division.

The chicken sellers were arrested June 1, at Mvong Ada poultry market when police officers stormed the market to enforce the government ban. Following the outbreak of bird flu last month, the rearing and commercialization of chicken in Mfoundi Division, covering the entire city of Yaounde was outlawed by Dr. Taiga, Minister of Livestock Fisheries and Animal Husbandry.

The police team that carried out the raid was companied by officials of the Yaounde IV Sub-Divisional Delegation of Livestock Fisheries and Animal Husbandry.

We gathered that those arrested were immediately whisked off to the nearby Nkoldongo District Police Station and detained. They are most likely to stand trial in the days ahead because by press time, they were yet to be released.

More arrests are expected as many chicken vendors in Yaounde are yet to succumb to the government restriction.

The Mvog-Ada crackdown, it should be noted, followed that of the Briqueterie neighbourhood where several grilled chickens were confiscated and destroy by livestock officials.

According to officials, the crackdown is a measure to prevent the spread of the Avian Influenza virus strain (H5N1), which was recently discovered in a poultry farm in Mvogt Betsi, Yaounde.

Meantime, as officials were battling to contain the bird flu in Mfoundi in the Centre Region, the outbreak of the flu was reported in the West Region.

Against the backdrop and to pre-empt further spread, administrative authorities in the region have equally banned the sale of chicken and its products in the entire West Region.